The Shop > Finishing
Anodizing aluminium without battery acid
AdeV:
--- Quote from: andyf on December 02, 2011, 05:09:19 PM ---Ade, how about colour anodising your sump, to impress the spectators when you roll the car? :lol:
--- End quote ---
:lol: :lol:
--- Quote from: Bluechip on December 02, 2011, 05:45:39 PM ---
Ade, that's a splendid idea from Andy. :thumbup:
I think you should give it some serious consideration.
And while you're at it, anodise the roof.
Thereby impressing any spectators under the car ... :ddb:
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
Unfortunately, the roof is steel, will have to go with a fancy paint effect! Mind you, any spectators under a rolled car will have other things on their mind, e.g. the craftsmanship that went into removing the sunroof (it's got a sheet of tin riveted over the hole) and the remarkable snowplough on the front which, there's a good chance, has just removed their legs :zap:
I do like the idea of anodizing it. I've got a couple of knackered car batteries, would it be sensible to use that as the acid, or should I shell out on the proper stuff?
More importantly, what colour??? I can think of red (common), blue (nicer IMHO, but still common), gold (a bit blingy perhaps), green (eco-special V8 :) )....?
Although it's cut out of ali, there is one steel insert (the threaded bar that holds one of the plugs in), I don't want that to vanish in whatever solution(s) I use.
If I'm going to anodize, I'd like to do it before I skim the top (that bit won't be seen anyway, and I just prefer the idea of it being bare ali).
andyf:
Acid from old batteries diluted with the same volume of tap water works OK for me, Ade. You may need more than a couple of batteries to get enough for immersion, though. And I doubt it would do the steel plug much good, though you could probably paint that with some sort of resist.
The major hurdle might be the current required. I've read figures like "between 30 and 300 amps per square metre". I've no idea of the surface area of the outside of your sump, but you may need a pretty hefty PSU for the job.
Andy
PS It might be easiest to contract out the anodising.
AdeV:
I have a 350amp battery booster, trouble is i can only run it at that level for 10 seconds in every 60...
AdeV:
--- Quote from: andyf on October 28, 2011, 12:07:14 PM ---
Hitherto, I have used sulphuric acid for what little anodising I have done. That method looks worth a try and must be safer
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Andy, from the write-up, I'm not convinced it will be any safer. He quotes a 20% solution of Sodium Bisulphate, with a Ph of between 1 & 2 - well, that's about the same as Sulphuric! Ph 1 is about as acidic as it gets, and Ph2 is not far behind. Ph 7, of course, is (roughly) human acidity (hmm, some may be more acidic than others) & on down to Ph 14 for the alkalines.
Brought to you by GCSE Chemistry, 1989 style. Since I pretty much failed Chemistry at A-level (follow-on from GCSE), there's a damn good chance the above is completely wrong! But either way, I wouldn't stick my hand in either solution!
Doc:
--- Quote from: fatal-exception on December 02, 2011, 04:54:17 PM ---So the question is how durable is the finish? Is it brittle like proper anodizing? Is it non conductive? After your hot water sealing, could you still wipe off the dye?
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No you can not wipe off the dye and yes it does have the hard like crust.
--- Quote ---Even if you are just doing test pieces, you should really pretend like you are doing a part that you spent a ton of time machining. You won't learn a whole lot about how good your method is if the part is not prepared properly.
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I agree before I do any machined parts it will get tested correctly I only did a quick test just to see if it would work at all and I did get an answer to that question.
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